Trap

 In the shoes of a serial killer

In August, I saw “Trap” at the cinema, the new film by M. Night Shyamalan, with Josh Hartnett in the leading role.

Cooper takes his teenage daughter to a concert of a pop star, Lady Raven (played by Saleka, American singer and daughter of the director), like many other parents, but once there he notices that something weird. There is an excessive deployment of police forces at the concert venue.
The problem is that Cooper is not a parent like the others: he is “the butcher”, a serial killer.

The first hour of the film is truly exceptional. Even though the trailer had already spoiled the core element of the story (Cooper’s identity), the way it is shown to the viewer is masterful.
Things get a little more difficult in the second part of the film, but overall it’s a great thriller, which kept me glued to the screen for its entire duration (also thanks to the lack of a break between the first and second half).

I can’t tell you much about how the story develops since the fun is in discovering it at the moment, but I can tell you what I liked most and least.

Josh Hartnett’s performance is definitely fantastic. The way he goes from caring father to monster with one look is chilling.
The great thing is that, despite his identity as a serial killer being revealed, in the eyes of the viewer he remains the protagonist, the hero of the story (clearly an anti-hero), while the police force together with the profiler who leads them take on the role of the bad guys. We want him to escape, also because his misdeeds are barely hinted at, without showing anything that would make us truly hate him.
Overall the story is well told through the images, in the way the scenes are edited and in the framing choices, all surrounded by the music of Lady Raven/Saleka.

There are, however, some things that work less well.

For starters, the motivation that drives the police to try to locate a man whose face they don’t know at a concert where there are approximately 3000 other men is weak (a piece of a receipt). In reality, it would have taken far too long to try to verify whether each of them was the person they were looking for. Furthermore, there was the not at all unlikely risk that he was not there at all (what if it was his wife, or someone else, who accompanied his daughter to the concert?).

Moreover, during the course of the film, there are several stretches. For example, Cooper is too easily able to make friends with people who work there and who unwittingly help him. On the other hand, however, those who give him a hard time, creating a twist, could do something simpler and less risky, but which would not allow the tension of the film to be maintained as high.

Finally, I was a little disappointed by the final twist. When I go to see a film by Shyamalan I expect a super twist at the end that shatters any previous expectations. There are several interesting twists in the movie and there is one twist at the end that should be more powerful than the others, but actually it doesn’t work at all. It’s too explained by the character who caused it and, honestly, the explanation and its consequences are too far-fetched. And moreover, there is a certain déjà-vu in it.

To be honest, I had developed an even more shocking theory in my mind and I was a little disappointed to see that the director didn’t want to go that far in characterising the protagonist. Cooper is the classic serial killer with a difficult childhood about which, however, nothing really specific is said and the lack of a real character development (the protagonist!), which would have increased the dramatic aspect of the story, is especially evident right in the final stages of the film.

The only positive note is the open ending, even if only hinted at, almost as if Shyamalan did not want to take full responsibility for leaving a little door open on the fate of a serial killer.
What a pity.

Anyway, I enjoyed it and I feel like recommending you to watch or see it, possibly on a big screen, just to enjoy the maximum possible involvement.

Enjoy!